NESQLUG News

SINCLATIR QL
USER GROUP
16 Highland Avenue
Saugus MA 01906

“we wl æ

SAWNeaDINeseWUG k

THE JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND SINCLAIR QL USER GROUP
S a SSS

PHadhornithihhabahalhthindhinthitht

Taat

EDITOR'S NOTES VOL V No 1 June/July 1994
Ed Kingsley

The QL is 10 years old, NESQLUG Editor’s Notes .....s..o
is beginning it’s 5th year and Me and My Z88 oe
there is both good news and bad How To Make a Banner ...
news. Details within. Directions

ABACUS a WP? sae oid a's oes
A couple of years ago, I under- QXL Update ....sesccsses
took the seemingly straightfor- S-Gold Card Update
ward job of organizing a public QL World - RIP ....
domain Library for NESQLUG. At SHELL - a Review .......
the start, it seemed simple Meeting Notes - May ....
enough. People would type in Meeting Notes - June ...
programs from magazines and Next Meeting(s)
books or donate copies from ex- Index of Articles .,.....

isting sources and I would just
assemble them into a package -
job done. Well, it turned out to be a bit more complicated than that.
I really hadn’t counted on my enormous ignorance of programming or my
sisyphean* perfectionism. I could obviously blame my mother for the
latter, but a lot of work would be necessary to overcome the former.
Along the way, I learned a great deal about SuperBasic and even more
about my inability to leave well enough alone —xit the frying pan.

Editing the Newsletter - Enter the fire. Quite honestly, I had no idea of
the enormity of this job. I wish to publicly apologize to Peter Hale for

the times I should have said, "Thank you, Peter" and said, "Hey, how come
... ?", instead. Unfortunately, little if anything that I learned from the
Library, life or Peter has prepared me for editing the Newsletter. I have
used QUILL all of my adult computing life and found it adequate. Now, I

have to learn. use IBM to QL conversion and Editor programs. ~

Now, I have to learn to write. Now I have to watch many hours of work
disappear when I mistakenly hit F3, F3, F, F, "Files - Format Flp2_MyFile",
instead of F3, F3, F, I, "Files - Import Flp2_MyFile". Now, I have to watch
DAYs of work vanish when the disk drive wipes out my Newsletter work disk
AND the backup disk! Not to mention my boot disk and two others, just for

geod measure. I’m too old for this ...! Help me. Send a disk drive or an
article.

(* Greek King, big rock, tall mountain - Mythology of Editing 101 ... ed)

A quick note about "Newport, The Miracle In, Part 2". The bad news is that
several of the noted Brits did not make it. The good news is the Stuart
Honeyball of Miracle Systems, did, and he brought his new Super Gold Card
with him. The bad news is that he only brought one. Many who attended and
expected to take one home had to be content to place an order with an ex-
pected shipping date of mid-June. Bob Dyl, the IQLR Editor and sponsor of
the show, was honest about all the above with those who called and the
attendance was lighter than it might have been otherwise.

No one who did attend, however, seemed unhappy to be there and quite a few
people seemed to have no difficulty finding other things on which to focus
or spend their money. "Cld" Gold Cards were being sold for $180 and sold
well. NESQLUG’s own Bill Cable of Wood and Wind Software, reported very ~
brisk sales of his ARCHIVE based small business and home accounting program
‘Qlerk’. My only disappointment was not meeting Dilwyn Jones and finally
finding out how he pronounces his (first) name. Congratulations to Bob Dyl
for putting together another fine show. More impressions of "MIR 2” in
"meeting Notes"

This is Volume 5, Issue 1, and should be the first Issue you receive of
your new 1994/1995 subscription. But, since "Miracle In Newport" coincided
with NESQLUG’s May meeting, the election of officers did not occur and
won’t until the July meeting, and since I have to do one more Issue ‘pro
tem’, I’ve decided that everyone gets one more!

If you don’t (re)subscribe, however, please be advised that:
THIS WILL BE THE LAST ISSUE YOU WILL EVER GET!

(you have been reminded ... ed)

Michael Jonas

I recently acquired a 288 portable computer. For those of you who have
never heard of it, it is a small portable computer created by Clive Sin-
clair in 1988. This was obviously created after Sinclair Research, Ltd.,
the company that created the QL, went belly up, so Clive created a new
company called Cambridge Computing - no relation to Cambridge, MA.

Anyway, here I am typing this article using my brand new 288. Why did I
get one you may ask yourself? Well, it wasn’t because I thought it wasthe
most powerful portable around. No, I could have bought a brand new Power-
Book from Apple at some reasonable price. I figured that I could get a 288
for really cheap.

Initially I called the only distributor in the US for 288’s: Mike Fink of
Domino Cubes. Well, after offering me a Z88 for almost $600 dollars, I
thought that maybe I wasn’t going to find one for a really low price.

Advice from several people was to leave an ad on CompuServe, which I did.
After a week or two, I finally got an innocent message from someone in
London saying that he had one, but that since he was so far away, I prob-
ably didn’t want to bother. I quickly contacted him and after two or three
more weeks it finally arrived for a mere 122 pounds, 22 of which was for
shipping and handling. Yeap, I got my hand on a Z88 for a mere 100 pounds
and it came expanded with a 128K RAM card and Mac-to-Z88 software. All in
all a great deal.

My advice to anyone trying to get a Z88 for themselves is to be very, very
patient. I only got one reply on CompuServe and even though it led to my
purchasing a Z88, I felt lucky that I got it. It seems that people hold on
to their Z88’s just like they hold on to their QL’s.

Now a little about the Z88. To describe it in one phrase, it’s like a QL
with Taskmaster, Exchange, and a few small utility programs preinstalled.

I was amazed at how complex and sophisticated the machine is. The added
software of Mac-to-Z88 also made integrating the Z88 with other computers a
breeze, especially since I use a Mac. (PC-to~Z288 and QL-to-Z88 is also
available)

The computer’s main program is Pipedream which is a word processor, spread -
sheet, and database program all in one. Working with it, it seems to be a
Spreadsheet program in disguise, very similar to Excel. It does do a good
job imitating a word processor, though, although it doesn’t let you reverse
wrap. If you try to backspace or delete from the beginning of one line to
the end of another, it does not work - very annoying, you have to use a
special key sequence to do this.

Although the Z88 only has 8 lines to display information, it utilizes this
space pretty efficiently. All the software scrolls in any direction at the
appropriate time and Pipedream has a nice feature that lets you see a min-
iature overview of the current page of the document you are working on at
the right hand side of the screen. This feature would have been nice in
Quill. (Amen ... ed) You can turn off this feature to get more characters
to a line if you need them.

The Z88 also comes with a built in BASIC interpreter which implements the
BBC BASIC standard. It does seem pretty similar to SuperBasic, although all
keywords have to be in caps and all Function and Procedure names must have
FN and PROC attached to the name.

The BASIC does have a nice feature of allowing assembly language, albeit

Z80 assembly, imbedded in the code by including an assembler with the BASIC
interpreter. All this is transparent to the user, he/she only needs to ~
write BASIC with the assembly code intermixed and the rest is automatic.

In some ways, the Z88 is a lot like the Apple Macintosh. In fact, in its
prime it was sold within the Mac community as a portable computer to be
used with one’s Mac. This was, of course, before Apple came out with its
very successful PowerBook portable line. Apple also had a 16 lbs portable
called the Mac Portable that wasn’t too successful due to its weight.
(Within the Mac world, the 288 was desirable and somewhat sucessful just
because it wasn’t MS-DOS ... ed)

Anyway, the Z88 is similar to the Mac in that it has both application pro-
grams (Pipedream, BASIC, VT52 Terminal emulator, PrinterEd, and Diary) and
desktop utilities (Calculator, Calendar, Filer, Index, Clock, Alarm, Con-
trol Panel, & Import-Export). An application is a program that runs in its
own heap (that’s memory partition to the non technical reader) and can be
suspended and reactivated whereas a desktop utility is a small program that
is called from within an application. Mac calls these small programs desk
accessories instead of desktop utilities, but they are one and the same.

The QL really does not have such things as desktop utilities, not because

it cannot support such a feature, but because it does not need it. The QL’s
pre-emptive multitasking OS allows for any applications to run regardless

of what other applications are running. Desktop utilities and their Mac
equivalent, desk accessories, were created for a task switching (but not
pre-emptive multitasking) environment where multiple tasks could not run ~e
concurrently.

The Z88 has a more sophisticated file handling system than the QL, allowing
for directories as well as files. I know that TK2 gives you the ability to
create directories using some of it’s additional commands, but it really
only fakes the use of directories by using all the characters preceding "_"
as a directory path, limited to 32 characters total. In a real hierarchical
file system, you can create as many directories as you want, include any
character including the "_" in your directory name, and perform multiple
file operations using directories like copying or moving files from one
directory to another.

Navigating through the file system is done using the Filer desktop utility.
This is very nice by letting you navigate through directories by merely
typing shift + down-arrow to go down a directory and shift + up-arrow to go
up. No need to type directory path information on a command line. There are
also options to rename, copy, move, execute, and get a detailed catalogue
list from your file system. The Filer is a very comfortable utility to use
and it supports the use of wildcard characters to match multiple files.

Also, the 288 has a built-in batch language, apart from BASIC, which is
integrated with a macro key facility allowing you to created batch files
(called CLI files) that can, for instance, log onto CompuServe with the

vT52 terminal program, retrieve your mail, download a particular file,

and disconnect. You can create these batch files by hand or you can record
the sequences as you are doing the activity and later play them back. Also,
the Alarm utility has a feature that lets you execute batch CLI’s at prede-
termined times as well as intervals. Pretty nifty stuff, huh?

As you gather from reading this, the Z88 is a very sophisticated machine.
In some ways it’s more sophisticated than the QL and in others it is less.
I was astonished at how much stuff was included with the minimal system
when it first arrived. I expected maybe a word processor and terminal
program and nothing else. The bundled software really surprised me. Add a
built-in help facility for all applications and the Z88 can really blow you
away with its sophistication. It’s another Clive Sinclair masterpiece.

Joyce Blayho made a very attractive cloth "NESQLUG" banner for our table at
"Miracle In Newport 2". It was black with silver letters and resembled a
Roman Legion’s Insignia. Here’s her modus operandi.

Materials required:

Sewing machine

Thread, color determined by your fabric choices

Scissors

Wood Dowel, approx 1/2" thick and 3-4 inches longer than width of banner
String or fine rope for hanging

Trigger poplin fabric, your color choices, at least a yard

Tacky glue

A sewing machine is optional. Betsy Ross got pretty famous sewing by hand,
so maybe you can too!

You can use tent fabric to make your banner. This may be your best choice
if you intend to hang your banner in all types of weather.

As always, figure out your format on paper. Think twice, cut once. Let your
imagination soar.

This is a banner, so the pattern will show one direction only.

Qur club has a logo that would look pretty neat on a banner. Your club
might have something as good as ours.

If you are using a sewing machine, use a zig-zag stitch. The thread to
stitch should be the same color as the fabric.

Stitch all edges with a 1/4" edge, Zig-zag or straight stitch. On the top
edge of the banner, stitch over 1 inch, making a tube for the dowel.

Slide your dowel through the "tunnel" and attach the string to the ends
protruding from both sides

You now have a banner suitable for a den or anywhere your club meets.

DIRECTIONS FROM THE DIRECTOR (Pro Tem)
Al Boehm

Bob Dyl, the editor of IQLR Magazine, called me to express his appreciation
for the fine support given by NESQLUG at the "Miracle in Newport” meeting.

Joyce Blaho made a NESQLUG banner and Eric Norton wrote a scrolling, Super
Basic "Welcome to Newport", QL display. Ed Kingsley had extra copies of the
latest NESQLUG Newsletter to hand out. Everyone that came pitched in with
setting up or manning the NESQLUG table.

We must have done something right because Gary Norten signed up several new
members. WELCOME.

In June, for the first time, we met at the Norton’s home in Billerica, MA.
I always learn a lot just by seeing the various ways people have set up
their QL’s. Gary has a separate keyboard for one of his QL’s.

His daughter Amy Norton, age 8, gave a very credible demonstration of the
QL "Touch Typing" program which she is using to learn to touch type and his
son Eric Norton, age 11, demonstrated his game loading Front-End program
and several of the many games he has with it.

I bought a Gold Card for my son at the "Miracle in Newport" meeting. It
came with a ’Gold Card Family’ User Manual that includes a Gold Card supp-
lement, a Super Gold Card supplement and a very good Toolkit II section.
This is a very fine manual. I haven’t seen a computer manual for the QL,
IBM, MAC, Amiga, or a main frame as well formated, complete, and easy to
understand since the ZX81 manual over ten years ago.

Two things during the last couple of months have given me some food for
thought. The first was the observation by Harold Jones in the last NESQLUC
Newsletter that there seemed to be some secret QL journal that explains ~“
everything, but that only an elite few were privy to.

The second thing is the trouble I am having refining an article I had
written on printing out QL Fonts. At the time I wrote it, I was quite proud
of the way I had explained a complicated topic in a form I thought that
anyone could understand. But ’... ed’ pointed out a few places that he
thought needed a little clarification. For starters, what is a Font?

I gathered material on Fonts from the Turbo Compiler, Toolkit II and Speed-
screen Manuals and the QL Technical Manual. The sum of which, if read and
understood, defines what a QL Font is. The key word is ’understand’. In
fact, if you did understand all that material, you not only would know what
a Font is, you would not need to read my superfluous article!

The point is, we all have a part of the ‘secret’ QL knowledge. Share YOUR
part by writing an article for our Newsletter or perhaps a program for our
latest Library Disk-in-progress. (both ... ed)

Tune up those printers and look for Al’s not-so-superfluous article in the
next Issue ... ed

ABACUS - THE WORD PROCESSOR
Ed Kingsley

I need Columns of Text. I need Columns that stay put when other Text is
moved around them. I need to move words up and down, side to side and

“~ arrange them in order by number or by letter. I need a very sophisticated
word processor and I have, alas, QUILL! Fortunately, I also have ABACUS,
and with a little ingenuity, ABACUS can do the job.

Several years ago I discovered the other side of ABACUS. I became aware
that it could handle Text in discrete Columns in ways that QUILL could not.
I learned that it was capable of sorting Text alphabetically and moving
blocks of Rows and Columns, all around the screen, easily and gracefully.

Making lists in QUILL is not much fun. If the items in that list have to be
arranged in some meaningful order, you’d best type them in in that order to
start with, because rearranging them won’t be easy. If you need two lists,
side by side, you’re in BIG trouble. TABs are useful, but try Deleting or
Copying Text FROM one Column or TO another Column without disturbing the
Text somewhere else. It can be quite frustrating.

ABACUS, on the other hand, was designed to work in discrete Rows and
Columns. You may safely RUBOUT cells in one Column without affecting those
to either side, above or below. Tables may be created of corresponding Rows
and Columns and manipulated accordingly. Rows or Columns may be sorted
alphabetically or numerically, quickly and dependably. If you don’t like
the way it comes out, you can usually put it back the way it was. Can’t
print it out with all the fancy attributes? You can do a lot with imbeded
codes, but it’s simpler to Export the _aba File to QUILL, add the format-
ting, and print it as a _doc File. You CAN have your cake and eat it, too.

There is one drawback to using ABACUS as a word processor. Since it IS A
SPREADSHEET, it is primarily designed to process NUMBERs by means of
Formulae. Text can only be entered in "Text Mode", eg, by prefacing your
entry with the quote symbol ("), SHIFT + comma. Each entry MUST be prefaced
by the quote symbol or the program automatically reverts to the normal
"Number/Formula Mode". This quickly becomes annoying. Mistakes are easily
made and tempers easily lost.

I use two ALTKEYs which I wrote based on an EXECutable utility by Real
Gagnon of Canada. His background program sometimes caused unusual results
in programs other than ABACUS if you were multitasking and it worked for
Columns only. The following two ALTKEYs, when activated, do as follows:

1) the Text on the command line is ENTERed into the current cell

2) the Cursor moves either down one cell (100) or across one Column (110)
3) ABACUS re-enters "Text Mode" for your next Text entry

100 ALTKEY ’/’,’’,CHRS(216),CHRS(34) move down one Column

110 ALTKEY "’",’’,CHRS(200),CHRS(34) move across one Row

I used the ’/’ and "’" symbols because they were convenient and were not
otherwise being used for other ALTKEYs. Use whatever Keys work for you.

~~. These two ALTKKYs greatly simplify using ABACUS for Text processing.

I run a Bluegrass Band and have to keep track of our Repertoire and song
Arrangements. I write Set Lists for Performances which vary by length and
type of material, and I prepare Worksheets for Rehearsals. These all involve
"Tables" - relational lists of data. Having the ability to easily rearrange
these Tables in different ways is critical to preparing these documents.
QUILL cannot do this, but ABACUS can.

-r
Here is a Set List from a performance at the Topsfield Fair last year. It is
fairly typical of the type of Table I make use of.

TOPSfield_REP S I N G I N G PLAYING
09/17/1993 ss em mmm mmenmwenereese (rete seescerrn
(c.e. harmony --e-)

No KEY TITLE LEAD BARTN TENOR BASS INTRO & BREAKS
1 Bb Midnight On The Highway Karen Eric Ed B M B G/b/m
2 A Handsome Molly Ed Karen m M G B

3 G Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms Tom Ed Karen Mike B M G B

4 Bb Don’t That Road Look R& R Karen Mike Ed b b b

5 C Till The End Of The World Ed Eric Karen b M B

6 Bb Roseville Fair Karen Ed g m/g b

7 G Wabash Cannonball Ed Karen B M G B

The part of the Table I care about is (8) Columns wide, INTRO & BREAKs is
(1) Column and, in this example, (7) Rows deep. (B, M & G = banjo, mandolin
and guitar) For Rehearsals, I can ‘Order’ the material to be practiced
either by Lead Singer or Key. For Repertoire Lists, I order by Title or Key.

For Performances, I usually want to mix up the Lead singers and Keys for
variety. I start with the entire Repertoire of 52 songs and a blank Column
for "No". Then I enter numbers 1 to (length of set) in the "No" Column and
‘Order’ on that Column. If I still don’t like the sequence, I just replace
(overwrite) individual numbers and re-Order the ‘Table’ until I’m satisfied.

uwo programs in the NESQLUG Library, Disk 2, DIRtoABA_bas and DIRtoDIR_bas
take advantage of ABACUS’s ability to manipulate Text. The first program,
DIRtoABA_bas, allows you to make neat and Ordered Print-outs of disk or
microdrive DiIRectories.

First, it prompts you for a Device to DIRectory. When the Device (eg, Flp2_)
has been selected, the program then DIRectories the named Device and creates
a File named "Raml_Dir_exp". Text is not easily Imported INTO ABACUS. Words
must be enclosed with quotes and separated by commas. The "Raml_Dir_exp’
File is created in that Format. When you Import the ‘Raml_Dir_exp’ File into
ABACUS, it appears on screen as a single Column of File Names (up to 255
Files long) which is headed by the Media Name and the number of Free Sectors
in the first two rows.

Generally, I ‘Cursor down’ to the first ‘File’ Name and select the ‘Order’
Command. This arranges the Column of File Names into alphabetical order. If
the number of Files exceeds 20 or so, I then Copy lower sections of the
Column over to adjacent Column(s) in order to create a pleasing display that
will Print out to a convenient format, like 20-25 names per Column and 1-4
Columns per page. Sometimes I Export the File of Columns to QUILL to add a
fancy title or do some underlining.

The DIRtoDIR_bas program builds on DIRtoABA_bas. It allows you to DiIRectory
a Disk, rearrange the sequence of Files in whatever order you choose and
make a NEW Copy of that Disk with the Files in the order of your choosing.

1) RUN DIRtoABA_bas and Delete the Media Name & Number of Free Sectors fro:
the first two Rows.

2) Arrange the remaining single Column of File Names in the Order you want
them on the NEW Disk.

3) Create an ABACUS Export File’, named "Raml_Dir" and Export it to Raml_.

4) RUN - DIRtoDIR_bas and answer the prompts for the ’Source’ and the
‘Target’ Drives.

The DIRectories on NESQLUG Library Disks 1 and 2 were sequenced in
alphabetical order with these two programs. It’s much easier than it sounds
If it weren’t, I couldn’t do it. Check them out.

Conclusion. These are just two examples of the work I do on a regular basis
with ABACUS. I use it primarily for Text. I occasionally use it for Numbers
too, but there’s almost always a lot of Text involved.

If any of you out there using ’Perfection’ or ’Text87 Plus4’ can handle
columns with those programs in a similar way, please let me know about it.

QXL UPDATE

Al Boehm has heard that Tony Tebby’s new version of SuperBasic for the QXL,
SBasic, is finally ready. Al has, however, not yet received a copy. Word is
that the QXL will henceforth be available with either 4 or 8 Megs of RAM
instead of the 1, 2, 5 or 8 Megs previously offered.

SUPER GOLD CARD UPDATE

Super Gold Cards ordered at the "MIN 2" have been shipped and word is that
with a newly improved operating system, it is even better than the one seen
in Newport.

QL WORLD ~ RIP

We have heard that Arcwind, the publisher of "QL World", the premier QL
publication, is calling it a day. Number 5, 1994, was the final Issue.
Negotiations are reportedly underway to find a buyer for their assets. Bob
Dyl of IQLR, has been one of those contacted, but to date, no deals have
been made.

"QL World” was a fine teaching magazine and will be sorely missed by the OL
community in general and by me in particular. The slack, hopefully, will be
taken up by Bob Dyl and IQLR. Bob told me that subscriptions are up and
have been coming in daily. He gave me a quick preview of some of the new
things he’s got planned and they all sound extremely interesting. Got your
subscription yet?

Gary Norton

When I was asked by the Editor to provide an article for this issue, I
looked for something I could write about that could be useful to many
NESQLUG members. This program seemed to meet that criteria. Due to the
number of commands and my limited use of this program, the article’s pur- W~
pose is to alert the readers to its existence and hopefully get some of you
to experiment with it. I’m sure it has something useful for everyone, 80
give it a try.

SHELL is a Front-End that offers a multitude of utilities. It is a Menu-
driven program operated with the Function keys. If a selection is made, in
most cases, a sub-Menu is provided. Apparently, the manual was written for
an earlier version of the program. I noticed a few discrepancies between
Menus and descriptions given in the manual. After loading SHELL’s boot pro-
gram, type Reset to initialize. The first Menu offers SHELL, Close File,
Reset, or Reset to 128K. In most cases, do not use the last option. It Re-
sets the computer to the unexpanded basic QL, regardless of how much added
memory you have. Select SHELL to get the first of three main Menus.

FIRST Menu OPTIONS

This Menu consists of F1 Files, F2 Jobs, F3 Window, F4 Medium, F5 Editor.
In addition, the Free Memory and the Date are displayed.

Fl - With the Files selection, F1 gives a DIRectory of a drive. Wild cards
are accepted. For example, FLP1_doc only displays _doc Files. The DIRectory
listing is scrolled with the up/down Cursor keys. Other available options
under Files are Erase, Rename, Copy, Backup, Erase All, Format, and Flush.
I haven’t figured out what the last option does.

. ~~
F2 - Start a Job with F2. You are asked for a File name, and whether or no

the File is a job, if it is, it can be EXECuted. If it is not a job, you’re
asked if it is a Basic program. If it is, according to the manual _doc
File, the File name and device + ‘LRUN’ is inserted in the keyboard queue
on Channel 0. Other Job options are Remove a job(s), Prioritize the jobs,
Anhalten - causes a job to suspend its tasks for a certain period of time
or until an alteration occurs, Freigeben - resumes the suspended job selec-
ted with the previous option, and Clone, to make a copy of a job.

F3 - is the Windows option. With this selected, you’re given information on
the first open Window. The information given is Base, Paper, Ink, Driver,
and the name of the Job that opened the Window. The open Window is framed
on the screen. It can be shifted with the Cursor keys. Other alterations
are made with the Function keys. - F1 changes the background color. F2
changes the INK color. F3 and F4 enters or removes the Window from a list
of Windows. F5 closes a Window.

F4 - The F4 Medium option manages the drives. Choices are: make a Backup of
a disk, Delete Files (wildcards are accepted), make a subDIRectory, turn
the subDIRectory off and Format a medium.

F5 - F5 selects a simple ASCII Editor. F1 loads a File or program into the
buffer. If the File exceeds the buffer capacity, the remainder is ignored.
F2 Saves. F3 allows the Export of ‘n’ number of Lines. F4 Erases what is
currently loaded, and F5 adjusts the number of Lines that will be display-
ed, from 1 to 200 Lines.

10

SECOND MENU OPTIONS

Now move back to the Main Menu. Use the down Cursor key to obtain the
second Main Menu. The options here are Fl Keyboard, F2 Switch, F3 Values,
F4 Sundries, and F5 Time.

Fl - As the name implies, Keyboard offers options that control the func-
tions of the keyboard. F1 switches off the Function keys. F2 sets a key-
board Click. F3 is an on/off switch for the Screen Refresh. F4 turns on a
Capslock Indicator and F5 is a Delay command.

F2 - Switch offers two options. The first opens a Printer Channel and
Parallel Printer Port for printing out Windows. F2 switches real Windows.

F3 - Under Values, F1 sets a Delay. By setting a value, the program slows
down, apparently similar to SlowGold. F2 allows the Baud rate of the serial
ports to be altered. F3 allows you to alter the Auto Repeat Frequency by
inputting a value. With F4 you set the Auto Repeat Switching Delay. F5 is a
Screen Saver. Set a value, and after a given time the screen goes blank.

F6 allows you to reserve a specified amount of Memory. F7 Changes the job
Queue Number. F8 Net sets the QL Network Number, the default being Net 1.
F9 Flush. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t figured this one out. There’s no
mention of it in the manual.

F4 - Sundries. Fl Hardcopy is a screendump. It dumps to either an Epson
compatible or a Seikosha printer. F2 allows you to set Passwords. F3 is an
UPN Calculator, offering approximately 40 arithmatic and programming func-
tions. F4 is the Trace command. The sub-Menu for this is F1 Trace on/off,
F2 Listing on/off, F3 Output on/off, F4 Wait on/off and F5 Further. I
haven’t figured these out either. Again there is no coverage in the manual.
Pressing the Function Keys only switched between the on/off modes. However,
when pressing F5, the computer became locked and had to be reset.

F5 - Lastly, Time allows you to control the QL’s Clock. Set the Time with
Fl. Set the Alarm with F2. F3 is a switch that allows the Clock to be
turned on or off. F4 turns the Alarm on/off. F5 allows you to input text
which will be displayed when the Alarm goes off. F6 Export Time is not
mentioned in the manual and didn’t appear to do anything when pressed.

THIRD MENU OPTIONS

The final Main Menu is devoted to the Psion Suite. You’re allowed to re-
serve memory before hand so the Psion programs cannot grab what is left. As
you may know, the Psion programs will grab any free memory for their own
use. You may start a Psion program from this Menu. An important note: If a
Basic program is in memory when a Psion program is started, it will be
lost. A Cloning capability is also provided.

In addition to everything listed to this point, there are also a number of
Extended Basic Keywords offered. Since I cannot improve on the explanations
given in the manual, I’ll quote or paraphrase the descriptions given there.
I haven’t tried all of them and am not even sure they’re all available.

To load the Basic procedures, LRUN BOOT_SHELL, but do not type RESET. All

- commands beginning with T are switches.

11

1. TKEY - switches the Function Keys on/off.

2. MTCLICK - switches the Keyboard Clic on/off.

3. TSWAP - switches the management of the real Window on/off.
4. TPRINT - switches Parallel Printer output on/off for assigned Window. ~e
5. TSLOW - switches the Program Delay on/off.

6. TSCHON - switches the Screen Refresh on/off.

7. TSUB - switches subDIRectories on/off.

8. TUHR ~- switches the Clock on/off.

9. TALARM ~- switches the Alarm on/off.

10. TCAPS - switches the Capslock on/off.

11. TSHELL - switches all Functions of this program on/off.

12. SUBDIR <TEXT> - the Text names the subDIRectory. Text is automatically
converted to UPPERCASE and followed by an ’_’.

13. SDIR <#Channel>,<DEVICE> - impliments subDIRectories
14. LPRINT <#Channel> - switches a Basic Window to Parallel Printer output.
15. SWINDOW <#Channel> - switches a basic Window to a real Window.

16. KEY <#Channel>, <CODE>, <TEXT> - programs a Function key or displays thans
already available content.

17. SALARM - sets the Alarm, using ‘YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTES’.

18. RAM_USE <String> - allows you to alter the Device Name of the RAMdisk,
e.g., RAM_USE Flp.

19. RESET - carries out a normal Reset, and all open Channels are closed.

It is recommended that SHELL be used on an expanded QL. Between 47 to 60 KB
of Ram is needed to load SHELL.

SHELL is available from QUANTA. It is on the Utility, General, 3 Disk of
the QUANTA Library. The author is Ralf Biedermann of Germany. The program
comes with a 19 page _doc File Manual. If you want a copy, contact Bob Dyl,
the QUANTA Librarian, if you’re a member of QUANTA. If you’re not a member,
join and then request the library. There are many other useful and fun pro-
grams there for the asking.

(QUANTA and it’s monthly magazine will be the subject of an upcoming art-
icle. Membership is currently 17 pounds a year and the Library, now 88
Disks large, is available for the cost of the disks and postage - a real
deal ... ed)

12

MEETING NOTES - 14 May 1994
Joyce Blayho

The regularly scheduled May meeting of NESQLUG was held congruently with
the "Miracle In Newport 2" conference at the Howard Johnson Lodge, in Mid-
dleton, RI. "Miracle In Newport” was hosted once again by IQLR Magazine.
Editor Bob Dyl supervised. the affair quite well. The room was filled with
many groups plying their QL wares to the crowd. There was hardware and
software to be had at reasonable prices. Even QL’s were still available for
spares.

Among those demonstrating and selling were: Paul Holmgren and Frank Davis,
of Mechanical Affinity from Indiana, Don Walterman and John Impellizzeri of
Qbox-USA, who run the QL bulletin board, QBOX, in Indianapollis, IN, Bob
Guilder of the Long Island UG, Bill Cable of Wood and Wind, from Cornish,
NH, Al Boehm from Bedford, MA, both of NESQLUG, Tim Swenson of "QL Hackers
Journal", from Ohio and Mark Smith of NY. One of our very long-distance
members, Hugh Howie (Canada) made it to the meeting. Good to see you, Hugh.

NESQLUG was represented at one of the tables to encourage new membership.
Eric Norton, age 11, demonstrated and sold a disk of game software he had
assembled, and copies of the May/June NESQLUG Newsletters and the two
NESQLUG PD Library Disks were available to encourage new memberships. It
was succesful and we sport at least 5 new members! Welcome aboard, comrades
in QL! (thanks to those of you who answered the call for articles ... ed)

The group assembled after lunch to hear the seminars on new products and
‘individual and group projects. One product, the Super Gold Card, was pre-
sented by Stuart Honeyball of Miracle Products, from Great Britain. It is
an accelorator board to speed up the QL. Great for those that desire the QL
to run as fast as an IBM. Tt was explained that the OS ROM is replaceable
for future upgrades. It even has a 5 v power-in plug to accomodate future
needs. As one person attending noted, the only wait now is for the disk
drives to access information. Two members of NESQLUG, as well as a number
of others at the show, ordered SGC’s.

Another demonstration was given by Bob Gilder of the Long Island Sinclair
User Group. He showed digitized TV images on a QL. The images can be color-
ized or blended with other images or text. This is being done on a QL! This
ability would cost a great deal by itself or if offered on other computer
systems. Quite a product. This is for people who don’t think the QL is good
for present applications in life. To think we have followed the futuristic
trend of video manipulation and computer interfacing is wonderful.

MEETING NOTES - 12 June 1994
The meeting was held at the home of Gary Norton,in Billerica, MA.

Amy and Eric Norton, Gary’s daughter and son, demonstrated "Touch Typist"
and several games including "Cavern Frenzy" and "The Lonely Joker". The
latter is a suite of solitaire-type card games with excellent graphics.
Eric showed how much easier it was to play them using the Serial Mouse that
Gary had recently acquired.

Mike Jonas discussed a program for the IBM which can read QL Disk Formats

and transfer the data to an IBM Format. He was unable to demonstrate it,
however, because, curiously, there was no IBM computer available.

13

Bill Cable presented his ARCHIVE based program, "Query". "Query" is a
Front-End program which can be used to analyze and cross reference the data
in your DataBase in a number of interesting ways. It is both Menu-driven
and interactive, and greatly simplifies working with the powerful but often
unfriendly-seeming-ARCHIVE. It is another. good program in a long line of
good programs that Bill has produced for ARCHIVE over the past few years.

Bill Cable invited one and all to his home in Cornish, NH, for the August Pe
Meeting (see NEXT MEETING)

THE NEXT MEETING - 9 July 1994

The next regularly scheduled meeting of NESQLUG will be held at the home of
Dorothy and Al Boehm, 33 Selfridge Road, Bedford MA 01730, from 11 AM until
about 5 PM.

Topics of discussion will include programs and hardware acquired at Newport
and the care and use of Editor programs such as QED, The Editor, Metacomco
Ed, Masterspy, ArchEd, etc. (notice how almost all these names have "ed" in
them? ... ed) A potluck lunch will be held at noon. The election of new
officers for 1994/1995 will be held following lunch.

If you wish to stand for an office, nominate someone for a position, do NOT
wish to be elected to something in your absence or need directions to the
meeting, please contact Al Boehm prior to the 9th.

AUGUST MEETING - 14 August

The next ‘non regular’ meeting of NESQLUG will meet at the home of Mary,
Bill and Rigel Cable, in Cornish, NH, Sunday, 14 August, from 1 PM to abot

5 PM. The topic will be QL Bulletin Boards and we will contact QBOX in ~
Michigan.

As in previous years, the Cables open their house and extend their warm
hospitality to NESQLUG members and their significant others for the weekend
starting Saturday, 13 August, through Sunday, the 14th. Bill and Mary live
off the main road in a large, wonderful home of their own design and con-
struction and rely on solar power and lightning for most of their elec-
trical needs.

The Saturday night fireside sing-and/or-play-along and the Saturday evening
and Sunday afternoon barbeques have been memorable events for everybody for
the past three years. Bring along some food and drinks, a camera, an instru-
ment if you play one and a flashlight.

Be sure to call and let Bill or Mary know if you’re coming so that they can
prepare accomodations. Several very fine bed and breakfasts are ‘right next
door’ if you prefer. Call for info.

Make a weekend of it if you can. For the ‘others’, there are many great
things to see and do in the immediate area if computers aren’t all that in-
teresting to you. No one’s ever had a bad time at Cable’s. It’s worth the
trip from anywhere. Hope I’ll see you there.

Bill, Mary and Rigel - (603) 675-2218

14

Ed Kingsley
Yolume 4 No 1 (July/August 1993)

In Memoriam - Ernie Wider

QL News Update - "Miracle In Newport 1"
QL Hints and Tips - QL Hang-ups

Why Buy a QL?

QL World Magazine - a Profile

The QXL Card

Volume 4 No 2 (September/October1993)

Sherm’s Updated QL System
CXL Card Update
IQLR Magazine - a Profile
PSION Tip - Saving Files
xrossing Platforms
PSION Exchange - a Program Review
QLIPBOARD - a Program Review
Stochastic Indexing - a Theory/Program

Volume 4 No 3 (November/December 1993)

Practical Computing

QL Keyboard Interface - a Review
QReview Magazine - a Review

QL Networking - a Tutorial
Troubleshooting the QL

_ Other Nawslatters Update - en Index

Volume 4 No 4 (January/February 1994)

Gold Cards and Bad Mediums
Keyboard Update - a Follow up Review

Volume 4 No 5 (March/April 1994)

The QL is Ten - "Miracle In Newport 2"
Gold Care Gets Faster - Super Gold Card
An Invitation - Publish or Perish

QXL Update - Additional Screens

A Crash, but Snly a Slow Burn

Volume 4 No 6 ‘May/June 1994)

To Crash, but Not to Burn - a Program
Me and My QL

QED Text Editor - a Program Review

Is The QL Dead?

PSION Tips - Converting _doc to _txt
HELPER - a Program Review

I listed only the feature Articles published in each Issue. Each Newsletter
also contained Editor’s Notes, Meeting Notes and announcements of upcoming

meetings.

15

- July 1993 to June 1994

Peter Hale
Will Horton
Will Horton
Peter Hale
Ed Kingsley
Will Horton

Sherm Waterman

Al Boehm

A. Parker Lewis III
Ed Kingsley

Will Horton.

Gary Norton

Ed Kingsley

Al Boehm

Bill Cable
Gary Norton
Peter Hale
Will Horton
Joyce Blaho
Mike Jonas

Peter Hale
Gary Norton

Ed Kingsley
Ed Kingsley
Ed Kingsley
Al Boehm

Ed Kingsley

Ed Kingsley
Harold Jones
Ed Kingsley
Al Boehm

Ed Kingsley
Gary Norton

THE NESOLUG NEWS

is the Journal of the New England Sinclair User Group.
Nee
It is published six times a year. Annual membership is $10.00 for North
America, and $15.00, the rest of the world. (US Students $5.00)

Unless Copywritten by the author, the material herin is considered public
domain. Please credit the author and NESQLUG when reprinting articles.

General meetings are held on the first Saturday of odd-numbered months,
from 11 AM until 5PM.

Special meetings, are held on the first Sunday of even numbered months,
from 1 PM until 5 PM.

Meetings which would fall on a holiday weekend are held
on the following weekend or as announced.
NESQLUG will exchange Newsletters with any group supporting the QL.

NESQLUG has a software Library available to members free of charge.
Make inquiries to the Disk Librarian.

1993 / 1994 NESOLUG OFFICERS

DIRECTOR Pro Tem Al Boehm ...... 33 Selfridge Road (617) 275-1097
and PROGRAM DIRECTOR Bedford MA 01730

EDITOR Pro Tem Ed Kingsley ... 16 Highland Avenue (617) 233-3671
Saugus MA 01906

TREASURER & MEMBERSHIP Gary Norton ... 43 Richardson St (508) 667-2048

SECRETARY Billerica MA 0187:
DISK and NEWSLETTER Mike Jonas .... 1691 Cambridge St (617) 876-7251
LIBRARIAN Cambridge MA 02138
RECORDING SECRETARY Joyce Blaho ... 971 Fellsway (617) 391-7931
Pro Tem Medford MA 02155

16